Stream of Distraction

I hate keeping a TV at my home.

Not that I don’t have one, but I don’t watch it. Its better kept off on its stand, dressed and properly covered. It unravels itself only when my parents are here. It helps kill their time. Not for me though. I don’t mean to say that I just don’t have any time to watch it, I don’t want to watch it.

It seems I’ve developed an irritation for it overtime. This irritation is a well-cultured and well-researched and well nourished one. I won’t lie about it.

The reason I’m irritated with it is coz I’ve realized its immense paralyzing monstrosity. It’s got powers enough to paralyze your thinking faculties. I’ve noticed this in the simplest of my daily jobs. I’m about to make a grocery list. My eyes are fixed on the television, the yellow post-it with its eyes wide open is waiting for the first scribble on its face, my pen too is waiting eagerly to make its first move on the post-it. I’m not actually watching the television, I’m trying to tax and tax my brain while its digging into its grey matter for things needed in the kitchen, however, I just don’t seem to remember what I’m about to list. Instead of the kitchen, in my sub-conscious, I can see the same color, hear the same sound which I eventually discover to be emanating from the television. I can actually write down the same list in a jiffy just after pressing the red button on my remote.

More instances:

I feel I’ll turn on the television for some music while I’ll read the book which has a new found place from the store shelf to my bookshelf. Forget it, reading never happens. Like the world knows, the visual impact is always more than aural impact, my eyes always drift to the screen, and my book lies there disregarded. L I can however read if I just turn on my laptop or my music-system with nothing to distract my vision.

The family gets together at night after a whole day’s work. Mother, father, kiddos, uncles, aunts, grand parents..you name them, you have them. And you have the ubiquitous television, sitting prim and propah like the most obedient kid you’ve ever seen on earth. A light conversation starts, intensifies, and suddenly someone presses the red button on the remote. The obedient kid, disregarded all this while, suddenly brightens up in all its glee, silently promising to take its revenge for being understated all this while. It shows you all its colors, all the various delicacies it can offer you in terms of trashy soaps, unclad women, actors who cant stand straight for a moment because they are born dancing, innumerable budding singers & dancers begging for votes to win a certain contest, gargantuan creatures, spike-haired cartoons begging you to laugh, something black and white that you hate to look at for a fraction of a second and what not!

If you take one look at the room, you will notice a strange human silence. All the bickering of the aunts, the playfulness of the kids, the coughing of the grandparents, the baritone of the dads is suddenly lost, and artificial mechanical intonation has taken over. The family is not talking any more, everyone is absorbed expecting something better in the next channel. The only time when you will hear someone speak is when he or she hates the channel the tv is stuck at and wants to watch something else.

What do you think the family will communicate? Nothing. In a few hours, everyone will feel sleepy and doze off. No more open talks, no more bonding, no more of family time.

Do I need anymore instances? Look at you and your family just one night, if your family is in the habit of watching television, and you will understand what Im trying to say.

Like I said, the paralyzing powers are immense. It can cover you with its tentacles like an octopus, draw you in, suck you into itself and then let its digestive juices act on you to render you lifeless except for that index finger to press the remote mechanically.

Additionally, it’s paralyzing powers are so strong, a person who is dissatisfied with one channel will not stop surfing until the satisfying screen appears. The victim surfs and surfs happily unaware of the world around. He/She is so distracted and aloof of the surroundings that unknowingly he/she is drugged with that distraction. Its like a stream of distraction, moving on and on until it reaches the sea when the mind is completely taken over!

Do you think then that the TV is a great thing to kill time?

Excuse me, ma and dad, I really meant to keep you and all your kind out of the periphery of my venomous thoughts.